To The Extremes
by L.Harriett22
Summary: Harriett Walker, a Wild Animal Conservationist, is tracking an injured mountain lion. She follows the animal up a mountain to help it , but things start going wrong and Harriett is in and out of a lot of trouble...
1. Ch1

Standing on the edge of the mountain, I am faced by the rough, gritty surface of the grey structure. When I look up, I can see the ledge where the Mountain Lion I'm tracking lies wounded; hear its roaring pain; smell the bloody distress and feel its warm, soppy and panting breath in the wind. My fear of heights is screaming in my head, along with my fears of the Big Cat refusing to accept my help and attacking me, willing me to go back down the mountain to safety. Controversially, my courage, determination, and love for the animal are forcing every muscle to ignore the paralysing fears and push me up the mountain; towards the suffering creature on the ledge above me. I can't stop now that I've gotten this far. I can't run from my fears any longer; I have to face them some time. I must complete the task at hand. I won't let an innocent die because I was too afraid to rescue it.

Eventually, through much fear and perseverance, I reach the ledge I have been climbing towards. I can smell the lion's blood much stronger now. The wounded animal appears to be a female with two cubs cowering behind their mother. I can also see another mountain lion watching me from a ledge higher up. I am cautious of this lion, but it seems to have caught my scent in the air and decided that I am no threat; however, it is still slightly weary of me, as I am of it. I lure the two cubs away from their mother with food so that I can examine her. It works. At a small distance, I can see that she has a large, open wound on her front left leg. All of a sudden, my attention is caught by one of the cubs as it cautiously waddles, quite humorously, towards the meat I laid out. It is leaving a trail of bloody paw prints. Startlingly, I turn towards the cub; a distant snarling stops me. I look up to see the mountain lion above me being joined by another; I put my hands up to show that I intend no harm upon the small cub and stand like that for a moment. When the animals seem to have tested my scent and decided that I am safe for the cubs to be around, I proceed in walking towards the cub. Although they are almost at a stage where they can trust me completely, the two mountain lions continue to keep a close eye on me while I continue with my job and examine the cub's paw.  
The cub is male and his paw is covered in blood and dirt. I clean it with antiseptic to find that he has a minor, open wound on the central skin pad, so I simply put a small, firm bandage on his paw and a little up his leg; then let him go. Before returning my attention to the mother, I quickly check over the other cub female; no wounds. Discreetly, I check the two mountain lions above, who have now laid down on the edge of the ledge. I nod and keep watching them as I kneel beside the wounded lion. Her wound is worse than it first appeared and she has a smaller wound on her right ear, tail and rear left paw. As well as a large bulge in her belly. She can't have two young cubs and be pregnant before the other two have left her. Orphans... Or are they?

No way of communication. Only a grapple hook; a rope; other abseiling/rock-climbing equipment and a basic first aid kit to treat an animal's wounds. No tranquilizer. No anesthetic. No way of communication. Solitary. Alone in the wilderness. A wounded and pregnant mountain lion. Two orphan cubs. Being watched. No help. No way of communication. Solitary.  
Silence.


	2. Ch2

She seems to be sleeping. She didn't move when the cubs left her side; she isn't dead because I can see that she is breathing because of the way her bulge is moving steadily up and down. I can't tell how long she has been pregnant just by appearance; I would guess that her cubs must soon be due. I begin to clean her largest wound with antiseptic; the more I clean it, the worse it gets. Eventually, I can see that she has a terrible gash in the side of her leg which is about half an inch wide and about four inches long. I can also see that a stone is lodged in the midpoint of the gash and so deep that it is almost completely enveloped in broken flesh. Hurriedly, I put on my sterile gloves; then rummage through my first aid kit hoping, with all my heart and soul, to find some sterilised tweezers. Success! I yank the tweezers out from the bottom of the kit and slowly, carefully and cautiously manoeuvre my position to get to the stone at an angle which will not harm or disturb the sleeping animal. It is important that I get this right because if I don't; she could die...

Thankfully, I manage to get the stone out safely. I took all of ten minutes, or more. It was almost exasperating to find the right angle at which to access the stone, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Once I had found a safe angle, I had to keep a steady hand whilst I gently slid the tweezers in towards the stone. This isn't easily done when you're shaking like a leaf. In this situation, one would have to transform from a leaf into a rock; then stay a rock while one steadily encloses a pair of tweezers around a fairly sized stone inside a decently dangerous mountain lion's deeply fatal wound and carefully slips said stone out of said animal's said wound and clears the bloody mess around said creature before returning back to the state of being a quivering leaf. Wait! I saw something...

I watch the mountain lion extremely closely while I bandage the wound that is now minus one stone. Her eyes flicker open. She looks at me. Panic rises in her eyes. Frantically, she looks around; not daring to get up. Her gaze falls upon the two cubs from earlier and her face relaxes once more. _She is definitely their mother. A look of_ content in her eyes, she lays her head on my knee. Blinking once, she closes her eyes and begins to purr. "Shh," I whisper, stroking her head, "It'll be alright now."

From this moment forwards, things start to get better for the big cat in my arms. I clean each of her smaller wounds with Antiseptic. Starting with the wound on her ear, which isn't actually as bad as first appears, then again, ears heal quickly. Following this, is the wound on her tail, which is slightly larger than the one on her ear. After it has been cleaned, I wrap a small bandage around it. Finally, the wound on her rear left paw is exactly the same as her cub's wound. As it is also covered in dirt as well as blood, this wound requires extra cleaning; not as much as the wound on her leg required. Once the wound is as clean as I can get it, it is clearer that this wound is definitely the exact same wound as the cub's was. As I did with the cub, I wrap a small bandage around her paw and a little up her leg. "There," I say, softly, "All done." She opens her eyes and as she does, I gently place my hand on the side of her face. Just as gently, she moves her head away from my hand and licks it before placing her head back on my knee. "Do you have a name?" She shakes her head. "What about…" I pause, deep in thought, "Sarafina?" For a moment, it seems as if she's smiling at me. Sarafina is my new best friend and I am hers

Sarafina watches with interest as I get up and clear away all of the things I used when I first arrived at the blood strewn scene of injured mountain lions. Occasionally, she hobbles over to where I am fiddling with a piece of equipment and sniffs it before I put it either in my first aid kit or my back pack (for rock climbing equipment). When everything is away so that the cubs can't mess about; play or hurt them-selves with anything, the four of us lie down on the edge of the ledge together. Sarafina and I name the two cubs Simba and Nala. Quite content, the cubs curl up together and begin to purr; with Sarafina watching over me, I soon fall asleep too.

When I awaken, Sarafina is gone. Frantic with fear, I whip my head around in search of my companion. It has gotten so dark that I can hardly see and the moon is casting an eerie glow over the ledge making things seem worse. As my eyes adjust to the lack of light, shapes become clearer to me. Sarafina is pacing behind me. I look up to see two large, four-legged silhouettes, looking ready to pounce, on a ledge above us and a starry sky which would be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen if it wasn't for the masses of vultures circling above us. Almost immediately, I hear a high-pitched laughing sound. I fling myself around to look over the edge of our ledge to see… Hyenas. We have to get out of here!


	3. Ch3

The cubs become restless; Simba is tugging at my sleeve and Nala is crying out in fear. Why isn't Sarafina responding to her daughter's cries? The Hyenas are slowly, but surely beginning to ascend the mountain towards us. I have no time to think. _Think fast, Harriett. Think on your toes. THINK! _I tell myself… Sarafina's behaviour! Pacing – She's not in a cage; it's a sign of stress! Not responding to her daughter's distress calls – Never a good sign. What could be wrong? I watch her for a minute, she's laying down, on her side; I pull my stethoscope out of my first aid kit. Her heart rate is increasing rapidly. I can smell blood; hear Nala's wailing and the Hyenas' giggling; I can feel Simba tugging on t=my jumper again. Scooping the cubs up in my arms, I turn around to see the Hyenas getting ever closer. Desperately, I rake my brains for a reason that intertwines with Sarafina's behaviour. Only one thing comes to mind… Labour. Rarely, a third cub is on its way and this is completely the wrong time. "If this cub survives," I say to Sarafina, doubting whether she can hear me or not, "It shall be called Lucky."

If I can smell the blood, then surely the carnivores and scavengers surrounding us can smell it too. This puts Sarafina and her unborn cub, Lucky, in even more danger. The fear of us all dying in the next hour is suffocating me. All the hard work of overcoming my fears; cleaning and dressing the animals' wounds just for them to die anyway was for nothing. No. It's not nothing, it's a memory. Anyone in my position right now would be saying 'I'm too young to die!', not me. I'm twenty four and for ten years I've devoted my life to saving the lives of endangered species and other wild animals all around the world. If my time is now, then I will have died having achieved many great things. But it's not all over yet…


	4. Ch4

Scared, is an understatement. Petrified, isn't even close. I have to be strong for Sarafina and brave for Simba and Nala. How can I when I'm more than scared; more than petrified; beyond wits' end? Love. Determination. Perseverance. That's how. Lucky's life is in my hands. When it's born, I will love it the way I love its mother; brother and sister. I will be determined keep it alive the way I have kept alive numerous animals before it. "We will get through this," I say, half to myself, half to Sarafina. I just wish I hadn't left my radio at Leopard's Den…

_Leopard's Den is my home in the wilderness. I live there there with vet – Dr Trevanion and his daughter (also a vet) Rosie. Living there also, is Mr du Plessis and his wife, Caroline. And how could I forget Olivia? Rosie's half sister on Dr Trevanion's side. Us three girls are the best of friends. Rosie is twenty four, like me, and Livv (Olivia) is twenty two. Everyone here is related in some way, except me. Caroline is Livv's gran on her mother's side, but she wasn't married when she met Mr du Plessis, whether she was widowed, divorced or even married at all, I don't know and I wouldn't like to ask. We're all happy as we are, for now…_

I can't help but fear for Sarafina and her three cubs. I can see a head, and an ear, now two. Obviously, its eyes are shut, as most, if not all, baby animals are blind when they are first born. I can see a nose, and a paw, now two, now three, now four. Finally, the tail is out. A smile on my face, I pass the new born cub to its mother. She washes it then nudges it towards me so that I can check it over. Male. "Welcome to the world, Lucky." I say as I release him on the ground. "He's fine, Sarafina, we're all fine." I say happily to the mother of our 'mini pride'.

All of a sudden, I am brought back to reality when I hear the cackling of a Hyena close behind me; Sarafina hears it to. "Sarafina, it's not safe. We need help." As if she understood me, she roars and the two silhouettes on the ledge above us pounce, landing behind me and the cubs, and attack the Hyenas that are coming up the mountain. "Friends of yours?" Sarafina nods. The two of us wait with the cubs until the two friends have warded off the last of the Hyenas. Majestically, they trot up to us, rub their heads against my arms; pick up a cub each and trot back over to the edge of the ledge. Now I have the task of climbing down the mountain, ropeless; with all of my kit. Luckily, I have my three mountain lion friends to help me.


	5. Ch5

Glancing at Sarafina, I pick up my backpack and first aid kit; walk to the edge of the ledge and gesture to Sarafina to follow. Slightly annoyed at having to move when she could quite happily stay where she is, Sarafina picks up Lucky and joins me and the two friends at the edge. Together, we slowly begin to make our descent.

Unexpectantly, we descend into quite a bit of trouble… Almost as soon as we had began our descent, the Vultures had swooped down to the very spot where Sarafina had given birth to Lucky. To their disappointment, the Vultures found nothing, not even the slightest trace of blood. Grumpily, they decided to instead, follow us down the mountain, hopeful of a meal. _Can't anything go right?_ I think to myself. Unfortunately, we run into a small group of Hyenas. _I guess not._ The largest of our two friends gets into a squabble with one of the Hyenas, which causes the other Hyenas; both the other friend _and_ Sarafina to get involved. In the midst of all the arguments, I try and gain a short distance between me and the animals, but I lose my footing and end up hanging on for dear life.

It all happened so quickly. One minute, I was tiptoeing along a slim; sturdy ledge. Unintentionally, I kicked a small stone which then caused a chain reaction of things to happen. Timidly, I took two steps further, heard a stone fall into an echoey chasm, felt my heart hammering at my chest, felt something crumble, a little like leaves, under my feet; then I was screaming, "Sarafina! Sarafina help me!"

Now, my heart is still hammering its way out of my chest, and I can hear the deafening pain of the Hyenas as my three friends ward them away from our path down the mountain. It's Lucky and his big sister, Nala who discover my position. Nala seems to have wandered away from the adults and Lucky just followed her as he was as bored as she probably was. Nala is making her way across the small ledge that I have just fallen from and she comes across my head sticking out of a gap in the rock. It seems to alarm her when I turn my head to face her and say, "Hello, Nala. Where's your mum?" She doesn't seem to understand English just yet. Looking over her shoulder, I see Lucky wobbling at the edge of the mountain and Nala seems to understand when I say "Careful, Lucky!" At this, she turns her head; then runs back towards her brother to usher him away to safety. When she comes back, she is followed by Sarafina and the largest of the friends. They pull up, out of the hole that I fell into, and when I realise how deep it is, my muscles tense up and _I can't believe that I didn't disappear into that._ I think to myself. At the same time, the only description that comes to mind is; _a black, fathomless pit_ which is more or less what it is.


	6. Ch6

We continue down the, now Hyena-free, mountain, followed by Vultures. In the distance, I can see the Hyenas scampering away to safety, while the Vultures are still trying their luck, with the hope of getting an easy meal. Well that's not going to happen on my watch. We continue across the tricky, Savannah terrain. Our two mountain lion friends, carrying Simba and Nala, let the cubs walk themselves for a while. I watch with a smile as Nala stumbles over odd lumps of grass and uneven earth.

Simba runs ahead and Sarafina gets agitated. I know what she's thinking. What if he runs into the Hyenas? Or if the Vultures picked him up? I run after him to keep an eye on him, and Nala follows me. Finally, I catch up with Simba and, scooping him up in my arms, check the surroundings for any thing that would pose a threat the cubs and, when the coast is clear, I turn around to see Nala still falling over bits of uneven earth. I laugh to myself before scooping her up, like I did her brother, and heading back to Sarafina, Lucky and the other two friends.

When Sarafina sees me walking back towards her with the two cubs in my arms, she seems relieved because the cubs are safe, but worried in case they're injured or can't walk. "It's OK, Sarafina," I say as i put the cubs down in front of her, "They're fine, nothing happened and the coast is clear up ahead." I turn to the friends, hoping that they will relax. But they don't. They stay tense, in case trouble strikes out of nowhere. I don't blame them, with such vulnerable cubs, but surely they must be needing some time out. The female friend picks up Nala and struts a couple of yards ahead, suggesting that we hurry up, and I pick up Simba, so that he doesn't run off again, and we set off.

After about twenty minutes, I see Leopard's Den. Rosie is sitting on the front step, so I put Simba down, take Lucky from Sarafina and run to her with him. "ROSIE!" I shout, "ROSIE, GET YOUR DAD!"  
"What?" I can see the confusion in her face. I stop at the steps, panting for breath.  
"New born cub... Mountain Lion... Followed by... Vultures!"  
"Vultures?"  
"Yes!" I point to the sky, behind the Mountain Lions and, surely enough, we can see the Vultures circling us and Rosie runs inside to get Dr Trevanion, and Livv comes running out.  
"AWWWW!" She exlaims as soon as she sees Lucky in my arms. "He's so cute! How old is he?"  
"Newborn."  
"Oh."  
"Where are they?!" Dr Trevanion comes running out, followed by Rosie. "Is this the youngest?" He asks, taking the cub from my arms.  
"Yes. This is Lucky." I say, recieving a growl from Sarafina as I hand Lucky to Dr Trevanion. When he has Lucky secured in his arms, I kneel down by Sarafina and say to her, "It's OK, Sarafina, this is Dr Trevanion. They're his daughters, Rosie and Olivia. The cubs are safe. They're vets. They're good people, like me. They won't hurt you or the cubs. I promise."


	7. Ch7

Sarafina, carrying Nala, follows Simba, follow me, follow Dr Trevanion, carrying Lucky, into the Veterinary Hospital. We pass Violet, the Elephant calf I named, in her pen and she stretches out her trunk to me. "I'm a bit busy, now, Vi." I say as I walk past. Rosie and Livv are following Sarafina, floowed, to my amazement, by the other two Mountain Lions.

In the hospital, Dr Trevanion places Lucky on the table. I go to take Nala from Sarafina, when Dr Trevanion stops me. "Are you sure that's entirely safe?"  
"Of course I am." I say. "She trusts me."  
"But does she trust _me_?" I hadn't though of this, so I kneel down beside Sarafina.

"This is Dr Trevanion." I explain to her. "He wants to help you and the cubs. I trust him. Do you?" She steps back considering what I've said. At first, she seems reluctant, but after a couple of minutes of staring into eachother's eyes, she drops Nala in front of me and pushes Simba forwards.


End file.
